Parenting
Dr. Pitta works with parents and children to help make healthy adjustment to life’s challenges and everyday living. She sees children, teens with parents together and alone when necessary. She also runs parenting groups. Dr. Pitta sees a child or adolescents dilemmas as part of a larger whole: family, peers, school and society. She envisions problems other than organically based problems to respond to both parties accepting responsibility for the issues needing change. Even with organic(genetic) based problems she works with the family that each member can be a resource to bring the level of functioning of all its members to it highest potential.
Dr. Pitta runs groups for parents of young children through the teen years. She also runs mothering groups where mothers gets support and learn essential parenting skills to build children who develop a healthy sense of identity and self esteem.
Parenting Groups for Mothers:
Being a mother, wife and a modern woman is quite challenging task. We all want to be effective parents so our children can grow and have: good self esteem, be productive in school, develop social skills and be emotionally secure. At the same time, we want and deserve a satisfying marital relationship that requires a commitment of time and energy to develop our relationship so both partners feel nurtured and cared for. As we journey through this stage of life we also want to develop ourselves as individuals. Juggling many roles and for some the addition of working outside the home, the stress levels become overwhelming at times.
Join mothers to discuss how to parent effectively through the use of a program Dr. Pitta created called “Creative Parenting through Creative Loving@”. You will learn how to listen effectively, communicate directly, set boundaries with family members and discipline not only your children and yourself. You will also explore how to de-stress your life whereby you take charge of your stress rather than it running you. You will learn relaxation techniques as well as “Smart Talk@” to help you solve problems so that life becomes more manageable.
Parenting Group for Parents of Teens
Being a parent of teens is quite a challenge. We want to enable our teenager to become independent as well as self-sufficient while at the same time build their self-esteem. How do we as parents succeed in this manner? It is well proven fact that the part of the brain that controls judgment doesn’t fully develop till the age of 23. That explains why from a biological arena teens act so impulsively and out of control. But what can parents do to help their teens develop in an orderly and discipline manner to develop into productive, happy and caring young adults. These issues will be addressed in addition to your personal concerns about your teens. The group will allow patents to process their thoughts, feelings and actions to help you parent more effectively as well as lovingly. The group not only provides the “How to of Parenting Teens” as well as support and sharing experiences from other parents. The groups run for eight weeks.
New Beginnings for Parents and Children
“Creating a Philosophy of Parenting”
By Patricia Pitta Ph.D., ABPP
Have you ever asked yourself, “Why doesn’t my child(ren) listen to me? I know we all have looked at how come our children are not acting in the manner that we would see as appropriate or in their best interests. This topic will be discussed in two articles. This article is one of helping you to ponder the relationship about your philosophy of parenting and its influence to your children’s behaviors. Many parents haven’t considered what is their philosophy concerning their child’s’ evolution physically, mentally and spiritually. We become parents and get on the tread mill of trying to do the right thing. The larger question is how do we become informed and what is our philosophy of parenting? Here is the Bill of Rights for both Children and their Parents:
- Children and parents deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.
- Children learn dignity and respect from their parent’s actions.
- All parents and children are looking for belonging and significance.
- Parents and children deserve to enjoy each other.
- In order to touch someone head or actions, we must be able to touch their heart.
- Parenting needs to be only “Good Enough” to have healthy and balanced children.
- The best we can hope for in terms of psychological health is to be able to cope and work through problems that beset us while at the same time enjoying the gifts of life.
- Children need to earn privileges of life rather than feel entitled to get them.
I will start out with the last principle since this is the foundation to set up a parenting philosophy. Have you ever considered the idea that children deserve love, attention, food, and clothing while the rest of what life has to offer has to be earned? Does that sound too harsh? The point here is to think about what is your philosophy of parenting. I will further explain mine which you are free to adopt. As was mentioned earlier is that children are looking for belonging and significance, which is the corner stone of self esteem. How will they be able to obtain these feelings is by knowing the rules of your family and following them which will translate to their applying them in life. If you want to go to the park, play with your friends, take the family car for a drive, buy a new pocketbook or a new computer, you must earn it. Is this too extreme? Just think, if you just show up for work, but don’t do the work, “What will happen to your job and performance”? How long will your employer put up with this? How long can your business withstand such non performance? This also applies to your children. Where did they ever get the thought that they can get what they want but not do what is required? Many children don’t even know what is required because their parents have not communicated to them in an effective manner requiring them to truly listen and respond in order to earn the privileges of life. The parent child relationship is the cornerstone where our children learn how to act, think and feel. This is where they learn right from wrong, good from bad, and to connect actions and life events to feelings.
What I would like you to do is think about your philosophy of parenting. Spend time to connect to your philosophy. Then write it down and discuss with your spouse, significant other or family member.